Boehner’s visit comes two months after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) spoke at Stanford University and later held a roundtable on economic growth and innovation-based companies with executives from Oracle, Facebook and Netflix among others.

The timing for a Silicon Valley Republican outreach might never be better. The tech industry has been interacting more with Washington over issues such as online privacy, cybersecurity and access to capital markets. Facing those sometimes-contentious issues, the Valley has been reassessing its need for allies from both parties.

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The speaker appears ready for the pitch.

“As someone who understands the link between innovation and economic growth, Speaker Boehner is looking forward to talking about GOP plans to help end economic uncertainty and create jobs with leaders of Silicon Valley,” according to a statement from his office.

In its early years, Silicon Valley leaned more towards moderate Republicans with one of the Valley’s founding fathers, David Packard, of Hewlett Packard fame, serving in the Nixon administration.

That support largely dissipated during the Clinton/Gore years, state Republicans said, and the Valley has since become more Democratic. In 2008, Obama succeeded in connecting with tech leaders at companies like Google because he was seen as a post-partisan problem-solver.

Obama's star has lost some of its shine since then, but he's still a popular figure here. There’s still some jealousy among tech titans over who got to rub elbows with the president in February at the home of John Doerr, the celebrated venture capitalist and Democratic booster.

"Democrats appeal to the Valley's romantic side," said Dan Schnur, the head of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Republican California Gov. Pete Wilson.

"Republicans do better when they are more practical,” Schnur added. “If they want to succeed, they have to focus specifically on economic and trade issues."

Some complain that the Democrats’ long domination here has created an insularity that results in a narrower political discourse and at times a knee-jerk dismissal of Republican ideas.

Readers' Comments (14)

Some interesting observations, but let's face it, the only reason the Silicon Valley "Titans" embraced the President in '08 was because he was the first to capitalize on the technology they champion.

This time around, it remains to be seen whether they will embrace the vision of the future that Democrats, and the President, have for the products they produce. With obvious plans to intrude, it would seem Democrats have few plans to "leave" Silicon Valley "alone".

Add in their failure in education, and it's difficult to see Democrats receiving the same level of support that was seen before.

The computer boom like any other boom allowed Silicon Valley to exist in a virtual reality dream bubble for a while. Cheap, easy money was being thrown about everywhere. Now that the computer industry is has matured a bit and the nations financial recklessness hangover kicks in, it will be interesting to watch how these people cope with actual reality.

ocean515, you're dreaming. Silicon Valley is a mix of libertarianism and progressivism, really, technocratic utilitarianism. None of the GOP social policies pass muster, and people here hate lack of authenticity and can see through spin.

Bay Area residents are wealthier, educated, younger, and more socially conscious. Did I mention smarter? People here don't fall for bagger idiocy as easily. The standard GOP line on taxes won't fly here, because engineers can do math.

I mean, really, you come to Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Netflix, and the myriad other companies here, and by and large, you fine socially liberal people who are more supportive of Democrats than Republicans. And it's not just social issues.

I know this makes them "West Coast Elites/San Francisco Hippie Liberals", but these people are creating the technology of the future, while mid-western rednecks suck on the tit of the tax revenues they send to red states.

Bay Area residents are wealthier, educated, younger, and more socially conscious. Did I mention smarter? People here don't fall for bagger idiocy as easily. The standard GOP line on taxes won't fly here, because engineers can do math.

Really? Well, let's follow your logic.

Educated, younger, and more socially conscious. Oh, and smarter.

So, I would imagine the younger, educated, socially conscious, smarter folks in Silicon Valley have an explaination for what is going on in California?

Let's see, what is going on in California.

Well, liberal progressive policies have led to the second highest unemployment in the country.

They have burdened Californians with some of the highest taxes and fees in the nation.

Then there is a business "friendly" index that ranks it at the bottom of all states in the country.

Of course, manufacturing continues to exit the state as those younger, educated, socially conscious, smarter folks inject their brilliance on the State.

I could go on about how the younger, educated, socially conscious, smarter people in Silcon Valley have affected 1 out of 8 people in this country, but really, results speak louder than words.

As to your last sentence, well if engineers can do math, explain how the highest taxes and fees in the country generates a $26 billion deficit.

If California is any indication of what younger, educated, socially conscious, smarter people can do, then, let's face it, the results indicate they are none of those things.

However, it's unfair to label all Bay Area residents that, so I'll just label you.

So dreaming? No, just trying to get through the nightmare folks who think like you have created here.

LOL! I live in the Bay Area and if Boehner thinks he's going to gain headway here, he's as about as dillusional as Newt thinking he's going to be president. It is extremely Liberal here and we hate the GOP. Leave our businesses alone, leave our state alone!

LOL! I live in the Bay Area and if Boehner thinks he's going to gain headway here, he's as about as dillusional as Newt thinking he's going to be president. It is extremely Liberal here and we hate the GOP. Leave our businesses alone, leave our state alone!

You might be surprised at how survival concentrates the mind.

Businesses are leaving the state in droves in order to be 'left alone' as you put it. It's been recognized as the worst state in the nation in which to run a business. 50th out of 50. Bravo!

This "businesses are leaving the state" meme is GOP propaganda ********. Yes, some businesses are leaving the state, like Hardees, but every day, thousands of businesses are flocking in high tech sectors. The kinds of businesses we want in the valley are coming here, and the kinds of **** work that red necks love is leaving the state. Excellent.

It has always been expensive to do business in the Bay Area, but government policies are a very very tiny part of it.

1) due to demand, commercial real estate used to be VERY expensive

2) demand for tech workers is very high, driving up salaries through the roof

If you'd have ever tried to start a business here (I started and sold *two* startups), you'd know that taxes are far down on the list compared to raising money, raising revenue, hiring talent.

As for the deficit, California already has some of the lowest property taxes, but most expensive homes, and when the real estate market collapses, a big chunk of the state's revenue disappeared, just like it did when the dot.com bust happened and all of the capital gains tax revenue dried up.

For those who don't know, Silicon Valley is currently experiencing a massive hiring boom. There are literally over 150,000 open jobs to be filled in the area.

My tiny venture capitalist backed startup is set to hire about 14 people by year's end, but we can't find enough qualified people to take the roles. We have to pay above market rate because Google and Facebook poach everyone from the top tiers.

While the rest of California may be having trouble, tech, biotech and greentech here are doing just fine.

For us, taxes mean basicaly nothing compared to talent, so most Republican themes of lower taxes simply don't matter. Every major tech company in the area is sitting on tens of billions of dollars in cash that they *can't* spend. Do you think we need a tax break to compete? Even with new taxes, angel and venture capital investments are the largest since the last bubble.

We need better schools, free green cards to foreign science/cs Ph.Ds and 10x more research grants. Do those sound like Republican policies?

If the pubes want some Silicon Valley love, they'd better get behind net neutrality but that will **** off the East coast communication industry. Quite the dilemma. Well, they can do what they always do and lie through their teeth! lol